The song is about meeting up with an ex-lover that you know you belong with after some time when at least one of you is with someone else - most likely a chance meeting or an impromptu date. Punctuated by Martha Davis' soulful voice, reflecting her deep pain from her own relationship at the time, the song subtly reveals the unevenness of love as the singer is more deeply in love and thus hurt than her mate. Perhaps she's with no one, and he's having second thoughts about his current mate. Regardless she is alas resigned to her fate (i.e. She can't help but love him) which brings home the tittle "Only the lonely can play".
With very few words she has painted a picture, the minor almost muted chord structure set on a slow simple but driving bass line / rhythm backbone, which builds as the perfect canvas for Martha's sultry yearning vocal. Like a great book, her description pulls you in, forcing you to see the picture through your own eyes.
She does this ever so subtly with cues allegorically:
"We walk the loneliest mile" - her time away from her lover
"We kiss altogether wrong" - they lost it the first time
"No intentions" - It wasn't anyone's fault; I don't blame you. And perhaps a whimsical note about how haphazard and random love is.
"We lie about each other's drinks" - the meaningless small talk they need to break the ice
"We live without each other, thinking what anyone one would do, without me and you" - Her we'll crafted attempt to be cool not giving all her feelings away, where between the lines she's asking "do you miss me?"
"So hold on - here we go, hold on to nothing we know, I feel so lonely - way up here" - This is where she drops her facade for a moment, to let him know she's miserable without him
"You mention the time we were together, so long ago, well I don't remember all I know is it makes me feel good now" - Part regaining her cool with a faux denial that she remembers, yet how can she not remember the deep love? And partly a reflection that she is glad she has those memories: perhaps even real world proof that there's nothing wrong with her as she did find love once.
Its the subtle words cloaking heartfelt emotions that touch everyone who's ever been in love that make this a timeless song.
The song is about meeting up with an ex-lover that you know you belong with after some time when at least one of you is with someone else - most likely a chance meeting or an impromptu date. Punctuated by Martha Davis' soulful voice, reflecting her deep pain from her own relationship at the time, the song subtly reveals the unevenness of love as the singer is more deeply in love and thus hurt than her mate. Perhaps she's with no one, and he's having second thoughts about his current mate. Regardless she is alas resigned to her fate (i.e. She can't help but love him) which brings home the tittle "Only the lonely can play".
With very few words she has painted a picture, the minor almost muted chord structure set on a slow simple but driving bass line / rhythm backbone, which builds as the perfect canvas for Martha's sultry yearning vocal. Like a great book, her description pulls you in, forcing you to see the picture through your own eyes.
She does this ever so subtly with cues allegorically: "We walk the loneliest mile" - her time away from her lover "We kiss altogether wrong" - they lost it the first time "No intentions" - It wasn't anyone's fault; I don't blame you. And perhaps a whimsical note about how haphazard and random love is. "We lie about each other's drinks" - the meaningless small talk they need to break the ice "We live without each other, thinking what anyone one would do, without me and you" - Her we'll crafted attempt to be cool not giving all her feelings away, where between the lines she's asking "do you miss me?" "So hold on - here we go, hold on to nothing we know, I feel so lonely - way up here" - This is where she drops her facade for a moment, to let him know she's miserable without him "You mention the time we were together, so long ago, well I don't remember all I know is it makes me feel good now" - Part regaining her cool with a faux denial that she remembers, yet how can she not remember the deep love? And partly a reflection that she is glad she has those memories: perhaps even real world proof that there's nothing wrong with her as she did find love once.
Its the subtle words cloaking heartfelt emotions that touch everyone who's ever been in love that make this a timeless song.